248 on manufactures and agriculture. Dee. tg 
‘operations ;—.in other words, by increasing the num- 
ber of hufkandmen*, " 
The natural inference from these premises, is, 
that in a country where the inhabitants are not al- 
Jured from the labours of agriculture, by a pros- 
pect of engaging in more lucrative employments, 
the population and the fertility of that country 
may go on, increasing together, for an indefinite 
number of ages without interruption, till both of 
these fhall at length attain a height to which no per-~ 
soncan pretend to set bounds. It is, therefore, pof- 
sible to preserve a state purely agricultural for ages, 
In which all the inhabitants fhall find constant food 
and employment, without being obliged to have re- 
course to foreign aid, either for the one or the 
other. 
And if our reasoning in the former part of this — 
efsay has been well founded, it will follow, that 
such a state will enjoy a prosperity more certain and 
more permanent, and its inhabitants experience agrea- 
ter degree of tranquillity and happinefs, than if they 
were employed chiefly in manufactures. In the 
one case, its prosperity would be moderate and un- 
interruptedly progrefsive, but secure, and liable to — 
few interruptions. In the other case, its progrefs — 
would be at times rapid ;—it would not seem to 
run, but to fly; but, at other times, it would not on-- 
ly stop, but be retrograde. 
By astate purely agricultural, I must be under. é 
stood to mean a state in which the inhabitants are 
* The state of ancient Palestine, is a practical illustration of this sube ~ 
ject. 
